Page 68 of Claws and Feathers

Reluctance.

Their heads turned at the same time, facing each other from a few feet apart with Abby’s hand on her doorknob. How easy it would be to invite him into her room. Into her bed. He could hold her again, keeping her warm and safe, free of nightmares. How easy it would be…

How impossible it would be to ever let him go.

Cooper’s eyes broke away first. “Goodnight, Abby.” He opened the door and disappeared inside, closing it behind him. It clicked shut.

She sighed, doing the same.

Abby was unnerved as she glided around the room, slipping into a silk nightgown and combing her hair. She brushed her teeth in the attached bathroom and glanced into the vintage mirror. Her cheeks were flushed bright pink. Abby placed her palms against them, feeling the heat radiating into the pads of her fingertips. When she stepped out of the bathroom, she faced the far wall. She could hear Cooper on the other side of it, rustling around the room, so close, yet so far away.

Abby took slow steps across the room, then crawled up to the head of her bed. She pressed her hand against the wall, much like she had done the night before. She inhaled a drawn out breath and rested her head against the sea-green wall that Cooper had helped her paint.

She knocked twice.

And then she waited.

Abby waited a long time, possibly an eternity. She could feel her heart trying to climb right out of her chest. It was never where it was supposed to be – no, it was a rebel heart. Always in her throat, or on her sleeve.

In his hands.

Abby jumped when she finally heard his two knocks. She jumped because they didn’t come from the other side of the wall as she had expected them to.

They came from her bedroom door.

Abby didn’t move right away. She couldn’t. She was frozen to the bed, weighed down by startling implication.

Then finally, carefully, she rose to her feet. Her trembling, cowardly feet. She forced them towards the door, towards the thrilling unknown, towardshim.

She opened the door and saw him standing there, leaning against the entry frame. His eyes locked on hers, and Abby felt paralyzed.

Cooper knew right then what was about to happen. She knew it, too. Her eyes flashed with fire, holding his gaze with unrivaled potency.

Shit.

There was a brief pause where he wondered if he’d made a mistake coming to her bedroom. He’d worked so hard at avoiding this exact moment. This shouldn’t happen.

Oh,but he wanted it to. He was drunk on just the thought of it. His tipsy heart was practically begging him to concede. Surrender. Admit defeat.

You win, Abigail Stone.

Cooper stepped inside the room, walking right towards her with every shred of doubt scrubbed from his mind. He reached out, grabbed her face between his hands, and pulled her mouth to his, kissing the hell out of her. She mewled in response. It was a primal sound he’d ripped from the back of her throat. It made him burn with desire so strong, the only thing he could do was kiss her harder.

They stumbled backwards towards the bed, his tongue in her mouth and his hands in her hair. She was clutching at his t-shirt to keep herself from falling, so he pulled it over his head. If he was falling, thendammit, she was going to fall right along with him. Cooper reached down to the hem of her nightgown, bunching the silky fabric between his fists. He inched it up over her thighs, slowly, methodically, waiting for her to stop him. Abby didn’t stop him. She pulled back slightly, her gaze landing on his bare chest. Her hands roved over him, making his muscles twitch and his skin come alive with heat. She raised her eyes to his. Something all-consuming passed between them, something powerful and raw. It was the permission he needed to pull her nightgown up over her head and discard it to the floor. Her hair cascaded back down over her shoulders, and she stood there in only her panties with wide eyes and parted lips.

Goddamn, she was gorgeous. Cooper drank her in, his eyes lingering on her breasts, then drifting back up to her face. He was overcome with need and fierce protection.Mine, he thought. He hated that word – he hated laying claim to another human being, but it was the only word that fit. It was the only word that made sense.

They reached for each other at the same time, and Cooper found her lips again, his hands running down along her curves. He felt her respond, quiver and shudder, as his tongue slipped inside her mouth. Abby clutched him, her own hands wrapping around his neck, her fingers pulling at his hair. He moaned, then pushed her back until her legs grazed the side of the bed.

Abby broke away to sit down and inch her way backwards to the middle of the mattress. Cooper crawled over her and she leaned back, pulling him to her once again. Their mouths collided, desperate to continue tasting each other. Desperate to feel each other.

God.Their kisses became heated; frantic. She was making sounds he’d never heard before. Abby’s legs wrapped around his waist, her hips rising off the bed to find contact. She ground herself against him, writhing, burning beneath him. Cooper kissed down along her neck, her chest, taking her breast into his mouth while he cupped the other.

Abby gasped, arching her back. “Cooper, please. I need you.”

He groaned. She was practically begging him, and it was making him throb against the confines of his jeans. Cooper kissed his way back up to her ear and whispered against it, “Tell me what you need.”

She didn’t hesitate. “I need you inside me.” Abby reached down and tried unbuckling his belt, her hands shaking as she fumbled with the latch.

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